MSI X570 Tomahawk WiFi Bios Flash button, how to tell if it's worked?

Vegeta · 14 Dec 2020 at 19:37

Yeah the LED isn’t the most clearest literally covered by the IO plate but keep the room dark and you can see it working.

The time it worked for me I didn’t power on the pc I put the USB in and tapped the button with a pen and it started the flash process starting the pc by itself within 5 seconds.

D.Trump · 14 Dec 2020 at 23:25

So i tried flashing the beta 1.51 bios to try out SAM. And my system became really unstable with this bios (sam enabled or not), i'm using 6800xt and the system would randomly shutdown and reboot every 5 hours or so. Adrenalin drivers would give out a notification it had something to do with gpu voltage. Reverted back to 1.4 and no more problems. Any one else using 1.51 experiencing random restarts?

Destination · 15 Dec 2020 at 11:56

did you do the chipset drivers to match the BIOS, new driver from MSI this past week?
i still don't get how the SAM drivers are tiny in comparison to the previous bulky BIOS

D.Trump · 15 Dec 2020 at 20:45

Destination said:
did you do the chipset drivers to match the BIOS, new driver from MSI this past week?
i still don't get how the SAM drivers are tiny in comparison to the previous bulky BIOS

didin't see the release on the 11th, ill give it a shot. Also the the file size on the website is wrong, by downloading ant extracting them you can see they're about the same file size, if that's what u meant.

Destination · 15 Dec 2020 at 22:19

philo-sofa · 16 Dec 2020 at 19:20

I am so terrified by this thread lol.

Lain low by time, a lack of upgrading and moving on in life: I'm worried for the first time since I started slapping together my own builds.

D.Trump · 16 Dec 2020 at 20:37

felt the same way after reading the forums, but everything went rather smoothly.
After installing the new chipset drivers, i have updated to 1.51 and enabled sam once again and suprisingly everything is stable. barely if any change in performance on cyberpunk tho.

philo-sofa · 16 Dec 2020 at 22:39

D.Trump said:
felt the same way after reading the forums, but everything went rather smoothly.
After installing the new chipset drivers, i have updated to 1.51 and enabled sam once again and suprisingly everything is stable. barely if any change in performance on cyberpunk tho.

That's good to hear man, thanks.

Am also upgrading for Cyberpunk... hopefully it gives me a boost from the 6600K. What were you on before, Mr Trump?

D.Trump · 17 Dec 2020 at 07:44

2600 i7 and a 1060 into 5900x and a 6800xt, the the upgrade was very noticable, specially with the gen 4 nvme.

philo-sofa · 17 Dec 2020 at 09:43

D.Trump said:
2600 i7 and a 1060 into 5900x and a 6800xt, the the upgrade was very noticable, specially with the gen 4 nvme.

But you said the CPU upgrade wasn’t noticeable? The main reason for me upgrading the 6600K was being 100% CPU usage and 60% GPU usage in 2077. Was hoping it’d have a noticeable effect on performance.

Guess I’ll have to cross fingers and see

D.Trump · 17 Dec 2020 at 12:37

it was noticable, upgrading my cpu made my gaming experience great again. what was not noticable was the smart access memory being enabled.
6800xt was the first part to arive in my build so i tested a lot of games in my old rig with it.
dota 2 for example would not go above 90 fps, same with wow. even tho i had 50% cpu usage it it was still bottle necking me hard.
Atm i get 55-70 fps in cybepunk every seting on max in 1440, cpu usage is at 50% at max and gpu is always 99%.

philo-sofa · 17 Dec 2020 at 13:44

D.Trump said:
it was noticable, upgrading my cpu made my gaming experience great again.

MGGA FTW

Good to know it had an effect, cheers. I’m now properly amped for the 5800X arriving today.

D.Trump said:
what was not noticable was the smart access memory being enabled.

Ahh, I see.

InkZ · 18 Dec 2020 at 00:18

My 5900x arrived today. Flashing the board was pretty straight forward. I had a Windows Install USB Stick which I had made with the Microsoft tool, and just stuck the renamed BIOS file on the root of that next to the Windows files (got that tip from Reddit). Pressed the button, it fast blinked for a minute or two then did fast blink for longer until it stopped. I didn't turn off the power for about 20 min.

The stick I used was a Sandisk Ultra USB 3.0 16GB.

I was prepared for a disappointing frustrating day after reading other experiences but was dead easy

philo-sofa · 21 Dec 2020 at 20:52

philo-sofa said:
I am so terrified by this thread lol.

Lain low by time, a lack of upgrading and moving on in life: I'm worried for the first time since I started slapping together my own builds.

And it worked, first time! Left the system off with the USB stick in, pressed the flash button down with a pencil, system started and it took few minutes to update. Left for another 15 minutes to be sure and the damn thing posted on restart. My old windows install even moved across fine!

Happy to post my USB drive to anyone having issues.

pcfarrar · 22 Dec 2020 at 11:14

InkZ said:
My 5900x arrived today. Flashing the board was pretty straight forward. I had a Windows Install USB Stick which I had made with the Microsoft tool, and just stuck the renamed BIOS file on the root of that next to the Windows files (got that tip from Reddit). Pressed the button, it fast blinked for a minute or two then did fast blink for longer until it stopped. I didn't turn off the power for about 20 min.
The stick I used was a Sandisk Ultra USB 3.0 16GB.
I was prepared for a disappointing frustrating day after reading other experiences but was dead easy

Interestingly I got one yesterday and flashback wouldn't work with my Sandisk Ultra USB 3.0 16GB, it was formatted to FAT32 but it just wouldn't read it at all. I created a 10GB FAT32 partition on a Lexar 64GB drive and it worked fine.

Wazz-1 · 24 Dec 2020 at 15:39

Lol just gone through three usb sticks with no luck.

Ended up using a usb card reader with a 2.5 Gb micro sd converted to MBR in Command prompt ,formatted FAT32 seemed to work fine

freddie64 · 26 Dec 2020 at 12:52

So i just flashed my bios using a old OCUK USB2 drive.

Think it worked ok just giving it some time before i unplug the mobo.

Is the chipset fan supposed to be running full pelt during this process?

Was a good indication of the board resetting as it's that loud, just hope it's not like this all the time.

EDIT

Found a video showing that the fan does spin during the flash.

Lemony Teeth · 28 Dec 2020 at 01:34

Honestly this was my first build and i was seething with anger. MSI should really document this stuff better.

Finally all is fixed. Here is what worked in the end.

USB 2.0 fixed it after removing all components. I used a 32gb Sandisk Cruzer Snap from Argos ((via Sainsburys)£4.99). 1.4 bios. Removed unused heatsink from the extra NVME slot. Left fans connected. Didnt overly tighten cooler (air cooled)

Save yourself the time and start this process with a USB 2.0 formatted as FAT32 in rufus and as non-bootable (removed autorun that rufus installs).

freddie64 · 30 Dec 2020 at 08:52

Well it's not working.

Put it all together and getting debug light on VGA.

Have reseated my GPU and checked power cables but still getting a black screen.

Only think I haven't tried is another monitor cable, only got the one DP cable.

Can you do flash back with everything built? Really not looking forward to dismantling it.

pcfarrar · 30 Dec 2020 at 09:28

freddie64 said:
Can you do flash back with everything built? Really not looking forward to dismantling it.

Yes it works fine with all components installed. Have you got another GPU to test with or can you test that GPU in another machine?